At Unbabel we have a unique approach to translation: each text submitted by a customer is translated by our Machine Translation system, and then corrected by our community of editors in an online platform. By editing the output of the software, the editors ensure the quality of the translations and confirm that the message is accurate (i.e., has the same meaning as the original), fluent (i.e., can be easily understood and sounds natural) and is in line with the style requested by the clients (i.e. respects their register and terminology). In order to help editors do the best job possible, we provide various types of information:

Customer instructions, which include the identification of the client and his requests to personalize the translation, such as the register that must be used to address the recipient of the message. Following these instructions is vital to deliver translations that match the client’s expectations.
Glossaries, which correspond to specific vocabulary and expressions used by the client, and that must be respected by the editors.
Translation Memories, which correspond to stored segments (expressions, sentences or paragraphs) that have previously been translated and accepted for customer usage. They are useful for ensuring consistency across translations.

We also have Smartcheck, which is an application that checks the grammar, morphology, orthography and style of the translations while being edited. By using a large set of rules, Smartcheck flags words or groups of words that may present some kind of issue.

Finally, in order to deliver the best possible translation, we also provide these guidelines about your language specifications. Please, read them carefully and always follow these instructions in your editions.

2. Grammar

2.1. Agreement

2.1.1. Tense, mood, aspect, person (for verbs)

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, tense is not marked in the same way as it is in English. Chinese Traditional Hong Kong uses context and time words to indicate when an action takes place .

Example
Source text: I did it yesterday.
✘ 我已完成。
✓ 我昨天已完成。

The example above used ‘昨天’ as reference points for the action that is being described. The character ‘已’ in this sentence is a grammatical particle that indicates completion of an action, but it is not necessarily a marker of past tense.

Example
Source text: I am going to Paris.
✘ 我去巴黎。
✓ 我將會去巴黎。

In the example above, the words ‘將會’ can be used to indicate future tense.

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong grammar, aspect (the way an action is viewed from a temporal or other perspective) is often more important than tense. For instance, the particle ‘着’ can indicate ongoing action, regardless of whether it occurs in the present, past, or future. Instead of relying on tense markers, Chinese Traditional Hong Kong usually uses time words and context clues to indicate the specific time frame of an action.

2.2. Determiners

2.2.1. Singular / Plural nouns

Chinese Traditional Hong Kong does not have a grammatical distinction between singular and plural nouns, the use of classifiers and numerals can be used to indicate the quantity or number of a noun, including the singular form.

Example
Source text: a book
✘ 書
✓ 一本書

Source text: two books
✘ 二書
✓ 兩本書

2.2.2. Classifiers

Classifiers (量詞) are an important part of Chinese Traditional Hong Kong grammar and are used to indicate the quantity or number of a noun. In English, we typically use the word "a”, “an” or "the" as a general determiner for most nouns, but in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, classifiers are used to provide more specific information about the noun being referred to.

Each noun in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong is typically associated with a specific classifier, based on its shape, size, or other characteristics.

Example
Source text: three cats
✘ 三貓
✓ 三隻貓

Source text: two buildings
✘ 兩大樓
✓ 兩座大樓

It's important to note that in some cases, the same noun can have multiple classifiers depending on the context or usage.

Example
Source text: a person
✘人
✓ 一個人/一位/一名 (depends on context)

Demonstratives are used to indicate the location or direction of a noun in relation to the speaker or listener. Depending on the context, demonstratives like ‘這’ (this) or ‘那’ (that) may be added when necessary. Also, with regard to the plurality of nouns, please consider adding the word ‘些’ after the demonstratives.

Example
Source text: this book
✘這書
✓ 這本書

Source text: these books
✘這本書
✓ 這些書

2.3. Prepositions

Translating prepositions in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong can be tricky as the same preposition in English may be translated differently depending on the context. This is because Chinese Traditional Hong Kong relies more on context and relationships between words to convey meaning, rather than on grammatical rules like prepositions.

Example
Source text: I prepared a gift for you.
✘我準備禮物給你。
✓ 我為你準備了禮物。

Sometimes, a preposition may be translated as a verb, or by using the possessive marker ‘的’ for readability.

Example
Source text: a tool for building code
✓ 用於創建程式碼的工具
✓ 適用於創建程式碼的工具
✓ 創建程式碼的工具

Overall, translating prepositions in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong requires an understanding of the context and the relationships between words, as well as a willingness to be flexible and creative in expressing these relationships in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong.

2.4. Personal pronouns

In English, third person pronouns such as 'he', 'she', and 'it' have only one form, regardless of the gender or nature of the noun they refer to. However, in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, the pronouns used for referring to third-person subjects can vary depending on the context and nature of the subject being referred to.

English	Chinese Traditional Hong Kong
He	他
She	她
It	它 (object) / 牠 (animals) / 衪 (God)
They	他們 (male) / 她們 (female) / 它們 (objects) / 牠們 (animals) / 衪們 (Gods / Goddesses )
You	你 (singular) / 你們 (pural) 您 (formal - singular)

Example
Source text: They are our newly added features.
✘ 他們是我們最新加入的功能。
✓ 它們是我們最新加入的功能。

2.5. Possessives & Particles

There is a trio of conjunctions (structural particles) in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong that are often confounded with each other: ‘的’, ‘地’, and ‘得’. Although they sound similar and usually have the same placement in a phrase, they have totally different semantic roles. And here are the distinctions among them:

的 When used as a conjunction, ‘的’ is placed behind an adjective to connect a noun, a pronoun, a gerund, an adjective, or a phrase it modifies, e.g. ‘藍色的天空’.

地 When used as a conjunction, ‘地’ is combined with an adverbial to modify a verb behind, e.g. ‘飛快地奔跑’.

得 When used as a conjunction, ‘得’ is used to link verbs or adjectives with adverbs, forming a structure that shows the degree or manner of the action, e.g. ‘跑得快’.

In translation, we should be careful about the selection of these three conjunctions.

Example
Source text: I am happy to inform you
✘ 很高興的通知您
✓ 很高興地通知您

3. Orthography

3.1. Foreign words

Please note that Simplified Chinese, Taiwan Traditional Chinese and Chinese Traditional Hong Kong may sometimes adopt different lexical forms for the same foreign word. Please use the appropriate translation based on the region.

Example
Source text: hacker
✘ 駭客 (commonly used in Taiwan)
✓ 黑客 (commonly used in Hong Kong)

Source text: Apps
✘ 应用程序 (commonly used in China)
✓ 應用程式 (commonly used in Hong Kong and Taiwan)

Source text: strawberry
✘ 草莓 (commonly used in other areas)
✓ 士多啤梨 (commonly used in Hong Kong)

3.2. Numerals

In writing, numerals can be written in both Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, etc.) or Chinese characters (一, 二, 三, 四, etc.).

When translating numerals, it's important to follow the format used in the source text. If the numerals are written using Arabic numerals (0, 1, 2, 3, etc.), then they should be maintained in the translation. This helps to ensure consistency and accuracy in the translation.

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, we have a different set of numerical separators from western languages. Especially when it comes to larger numbers, we use ‘萬’ (10 thousand) and ‘億’ (100 million), rather than million or billion, as separators.

Example
Source text: 10 million
✘ 10 百萬
✓ 1 千萬

Source text: 2 billions
✘ 2 億
✓ 20 億

For large numbers without numerical separators, we still need to use the same decimal separator as English (comma).

Example
Source text: 27,654,400
✘ 27654400
✓ 27,654,400

3.3. Symbols

In the use of symbols (%, /, |, { }, etc.), Chinese Traditional Hong Kong usually follows the English source format.

If the percentage symbol is used (such as 10%), it should be the same in the translation. If the percentage is written in characters (as 5 percent), it can be translated as ‘5%’or ‘百分之五’ in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong. Please note that there is no whitespace between the number and the symbol ‘%’.

The symbol ‘&’ is rarely used in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, so in most cases, please change it into ‘和’ and don't keep it in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong. However, when ‘&’ is used in the name of a place, it is not necessary to always change it into ‘和’. Instead, it can be omitted by integrating the two coordinated parts in the translation.

3.4. Whitespace

Chinese Traditional Hong Kong characters are logograms, meaning that each character represents a word or a concept, and they are typically composed of multiple strokes arranged in a specific pattern. Chinese Traditional Hong Kong characters do not require spaces between them because each character is already a self-contained unit of meaning.

We should also pay attention that some symbols in the source text may act as identifiers for machine recognition (e.g. ‘{ }’ ), so please do not alter them and the text within the target text.

Example
Source text: Visit {course_name}
✘ Visit {course_name}
✘ 查看{課程_名稱}
✓ 查看{course_name}

However, there are some exceptions, which are listed below.

Place a whitespace before and after foreign words

Example
Source text: On LeanCloud, the data storage is based on AVObject.
✘ 在LeanCloud上，數據儲存是圍繞AVObject進行的。
✘ 在 LeanCloud上，數據儲存是圍繞AVObject 進行的。
✓ 在 LeanCloud 上，數據儲存是圍繞 AVObject 進行的。

Note: When it comes to product and brand names with mixed scripts, follow the official usage as defined by the brand, even if it deviates from general spacing rules:

Example
Source text: Douban FM
✘ 豆瓣 FM
✓ 豆瓣FM

Place a whitespace before and after numbers

Example
Source text: I spent 5000 yuan on grocery shopping today.
✘ 今天買菜花了 5,000元。
✘ 今天買菜花了5,000元。
✓ 今天買菜花了 5,000 元。

Place a whitespace between numbers and units

Example
Source text: The speed of the optical fibre cable of my house is 10 Gbps. And my SSD drive has a storage of 20 TB.
✘ 我家的光纖入屋寬頻有 10Gbps，SSD 一共有 20TB。
✓ 我家的光纖入屋寬頻有 10 Gbps，SSD 一共有 20 TB。

Exception: There should not be any spacing between numbers and degrees/percentages.

Example
Source text: Today's temperature gets as high as 32°.
✘ 今天最高氣溫達至 32 °。
✓ 今天最高氣溫達至 32°。

Source text: The new MacBook Pro gains a 15% boost on CPU performance.
✘ 新 MacBook Pro 有 15 % 的 CPU 性能提升。
✓ 新 MacBook Pro 有 15% 的 CPU 性能提升。

Do not place whitespaces before or after punctuation in full width form

Example
Source text: I just bought an iPhone, which made me so happy!
✘ 剛剛買了一部 iPhone ，好開心！
✓ 剛剛買了一部 iPhone，好開心！

4. Punctuation

4.1. How to use punctuation marks

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, we should use full width punctuation marks （，。？「」！）, rather than half width punctuation marks in western languages (, . ? “ ” !).

4.1.1. Enumeration (頓號)

Unlike English, when listing items in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, we use ‘、’ rather than ‘，’.

Example
Source text: You should learn their interests, hobbies, habits and studying methods.
✘ 你應該了解他們的興趣，愛好，習慣和學習方法。
✓ 你應該了解他們的興趣、愛好、習慣和學習方法。

4.1.2. Hyphen & Dashes (連字符和破折號)

Since Chinese Traditional Hong Kong doesn’t have a compound noun system like western languages, we seldom use hyphen (-) in our language.

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong translation, you should keep the same usage of en dash of the source text if it indicates a span or range of numbers, usually with spaces before and after.

Example
Source text: You will find this material in chapters 8 –12.
✓ 你會在 8 – 12 章找到這些材料。
✓ 你會在第 8 至 12 章找到這些材料。

4.1.3. Em dash (—)

The em dash (—) is often used in a manner similar to parentheses, as it can also substitute for something missing. Unlike in English, we use a double em dash (——) in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong. So please do not use a single em dash or en dash or even hyphen when a double em dash is needed.

Example
Source text: The core of the auditorium building — The Central Hall.
✘ 大會堂建築的樞紐部分—中央大廳。
✘ 大會堂建築的樞紐部分--中央大廳。
✓ 大會堂建築的樞紐部分——中央大廳。

4.1.4. Quotation marks (問號)

Please pay extra attention to the fact that Chinese Traditional Hong Kong has a unique set of quote marks (「」&『』), which is different from English (“ ” & ‘ ’), and Simplified Chinese (“”&‘’).

Example
Source text: They are the best people you should turn to for these 'hacking' behaviors.
✘ 他們是處理這種“入侵行為”的最佳人選。
✓ 他們是處理這種「入侵行為」的最佳人選。

4.1.5. Ellipsis (省略號)

For the usage of ellipsis (…) in English, we use a double ellipsis (……) instead. Please note that an ellipsis is not three periods (...). It’s a single punctuation.

Example
Source text: You can win coins, exp, boosters...
✘ 您可以獲得金幣、經驗、道具...
✓ 您可以獲得金幣、經驗、道具……

4.1.6. Guillemet (書名號)

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, we use a unique set of guillemet (《》) to indicate the title of a publication or other forms of productions.

Example
Source text: According to “New York Times”
✘ 根據紐約時報的消息
✓ 根據《紐約時報》的消息

4.1.7. Interpunct (間隔號)

When translating a foreign person’s name into Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, you should not add an interpunct (·) between his/her given name and the family name.

Example
Source text: Julia Roberts
✘ 茱莉亞·羅拔絲
✓ 茱莉亞羅拔絲

4.1.8. Colon (冒號)

Please use full-width colon (：) in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong translation.

Example
Source text: Please follow the instruction: download the file first.
✘ 請按指示: 下載文件。
✓ 請按指示︰先下載文件。

4.2. Punctuation in greetings and closings

Unlike English, we prefer using a colon (：) rather than a comma (，) after greetings in letters.

Example
Source text: Dear Ms. Chen,
✘ 尊敬的陳女士，
✓ 尊敬的陳女士：

Unlike English, we prefer closings without any punctuation behind.

Example
Source text: Best regards,
✘ 謹致問候，
✓ 謹致問候

5. Register

Register refers to the level of formality used in the text. It shows how our clients address their customers and contributes to the voice of the brand itself. Register may vary depending on the company, the brand, the service they offer, the customers, and the target language.

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, there are different grammatical and lexical registers that are used in different contexts. These registers are determined by various factors, such as the social status of the speaker, the formality of the situation, and the intended audience.

One example of a grammatical register in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong is the use of formal or polite language. This includes using honorifics when addressing someone of a higher status, such as adding the suffix ‘-先生 / 小姐’ after a name to indicate respect, or using the polite particle ‘請’ when making a request.

Another example is the use of classical Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, which is a formal and literary register that is based on ancient Chinese Traditional Hong Kong texts. This register is used in formal situations, such as in academic writing or in speeches. Note that the level of formality and the choice of register can vary depending on the context and the relationship between the speakers.

We make the first main distinction between grammatical and lexical register: the first one regards the use of pronouns and verb person (for the languages to which this morphological feature is applied), while the latter is related to lexical choices, since some words and expressions also have a degree of formality or colloquialism.

Both these registers are also divided into formal and informal, as shown below.

5.1. Formal vs Informal register

Category	Formal	Informal	Type of Register
Personal pronouns	您	你	Grammatical
Verbs (person used to conjugate the verb)	請	N/A	Grammatical
Possessive pronouns	您的	你的	Grammatical
Greetings	您好、尊敬的先生/女士	你好	Lexical
Closings	此致、謹致問候、順祝商祺	祝好	Lexical
Apologies	非常抱歉	對不起、不好意思	Lexical

6. Localization challenges

Most of these challenges refer to unique entities, such as persons, places, organizations, brands... or the specific format of dates, addresses and so on. Languages may adopt different rules regarding whether those units should be translated, reformatted or kept as in the original language. When editing a text, you should follow your language's rules for all different types of units listed below. However, please note that if there is a glossary provided by the client that includes some of them, you should always apply the glossary items.

6.1. Personal names

In Hong Kong, the primary spoken language is Cantonese rather than Mandarin. Thus, when translating names, it is essential to use Cantonese for phonetic translation in order to accurately represent the pronunciation of the name in the local dialect.

Example
Source text: Michael Jordan
✘ 麥可·喬丹 (use in Taiwan)
✘ 邁克爾·喬丹 (use in China)
✓ 米高佐敦

6.2. Organizations

When dealing with well-known organizations, it is important to translate them accurately into Chinese Traditional Hong Kong unless the client specifies that they should not be translated. To begin with, it's recommended to search for the official name of the organization to see if there is an established Chinese Traditional Hong Kong name. However, it's important to note that there may be multiple homophones for the same name, so it's necessary to use the most commonly used Chinese Traditional Hong Kong characters.

Example
Source text: University of Birmingham
✘ Birmingham大學
✓ 伯明翰大學

6.3. Brands and products

For brands and products that have an official Chinese Traditional Hong Kong name, it depends on the client’s instruction to keep it in English or untranslated. Unlike person names, please do not add an Interpunct in the name of a brand if the brand is named after the designer.

Example
Source text: Louis Vuitton
✘ 路易·威登
✓ 路易威登

Source text: iOS
✘ IOS 裝置
✓ iOS 裝置

6.4. Other entities

For well-known entities such as art (paintings), events (festivals, theatre plays, etc.), names of boats (e.g. Titanic), movies, dramas, etc., we need to translate them properly in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, unless the client indicates they are not translatable.

Example
Source text: Titanic
✘泰坦尼克號 (use in China)
✓ 鐵達尼號 (use in Hong Kong and Taiwan)

It is common for movies and dramas to have varying titles across different regions and markets, such as China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. This is because they are often localized and translated to suit the cultural and linguistic preferences of the target audience. Therefore, when translating the titles, it is important to consider the specific market and ensure that the translated title is appropriate and resonates with the local audience.

Example
Source text: A man called Otto
✘生無可戀的奧托 (use in China)
✘ 超難搞先生(use in Taiwan)
✓ 隱閉中年 (use in Hong Kong)

6.5. Acronyms and initials

Since we don’t have acronyms and initials in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, for well-known abbreviations (e.g. AIDS, UN, etc.), we need to translate them properly; for specific abbreviations provided by clients, we can keep them untranslated.

When dealing with English acronyms and initials, please apply the following general rules:

Acronyms and initial letters should be all uppercased.
If "s" is added at the end of an English acronym, meaning plural, the "s" should be dropped when localizing into Chinese Traditional Hong Kong.

Example
Source text: AIDS
✓ 愛滋病

Source text: UN
✓ 聯合國

Source text: The placeholders can be replaced by the HTMLs.
✘ 佔位符可以用 HTMLs 代替。
✓ 佔位符可以用 HTML 代替。

Sometimes, in order for readers to understand what the acronyms stand for, an explanation in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong is needed. In such cases, please put the translation or explanation in parentheses after the English acronyms at the first time it appears in the article. Then, only use the English acronyms in the rest of the text.

Example
Source text: PaaS
✓ PaaS（平台即服務）

6.6. Places

For well-known place names (countries, cities, monuments), we need to translate them properly in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, unless the client indicates they are not translatable. Since there may exist several homonyms for the same name, please use the most commonly used Chinese Traditional Hong Kong characters.

Example
Source text: Times Square is a tourist destination in New York.
✘ Times Square 是 New York 的旅遊勝地。
✓ 時代廣場是紐約的旅遊勝地。

Clients may have different preferences regarding the localization of place names in the translation. If the name of the place needs to be translated, please use the official or commonly used and accepted translation in Hong Kong.

6.7. Time expressions

Regarding time format in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, we tend to keep the numbers in the source text, but we must use half width colon (:) rather than full width colon (：). For the time format am/pm, we can either convert it into a 24 hour format or translate them as 凌晨/上午/下午/晚上 accordingly.

Example
Source text: 12:30 p.m.
✘ 12：30 p.m.
✓ 下午 12 : 30
✓ 下午十二時三十分

12 a.m.	午夜12時
3 a.m.	凌晨3時
7 a.m.	上午 7 時
12 p.m.	中午12時
6 p.m.	下午6時
9 p.m.	晚上 9時

6.8. Date expressions

Regarding date format in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, we tend to keep the numbers in digit form, and keep the date units in the order of year(年), month(月), day(日).

Example
Source text: April 3, 2008
✘ 2008 年四月三日
✓ 2008年 4 月 3 日
✓ 二零零八年四月三日

6.9. Currency

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, currency values should be left as they are in the source text, only translating the “currency”.

Example
Source text: 100 dollars
✘ 100 dollars
✓ 一百美元
✓ 100 美元

For currency symbols (€, $, £, etc.) and initials (USD, GBP, RUB, INR, DKK, NOK, etc.), we need to translate them properly in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong too.

Example
Source text: 20 GBP
✘ £20
✘ GBP 20
✓ 20 英鎊

6.10. Measures

Measures should not be converted unless explicitly specified in the instructions. In HK Chinese, there are appropriate official translations for measurement units (eg. 2 米 , 長 2 寸), please follow them in the translation.

7. Tricky cases

For those bilingual editors of both Traditional (HK / Taiwan) and Simplified Chinese, although there are many similarities between the languages, they are not just two different representations of the same characters. When translating into Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, please use the specific expressions, terms and characters of Chinese Traditional Hong Kong. Most importantly, it is to avoid using simplified characters in the translation.

Example
Source text: Application
✘ 應用程序
✓ 應用程式

Source text: Reply
✘ 回復
✓ 回覆

Source text: Queen
✘ 皇後
✓ 皇后

8. Most frequent errors

8.1. Overly Literal

When translating from English to Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, it's important to keep in mind that the two languages have different expressions and sentence structures. Simply translating word-for-word can result in a target text that is difficult to understand. Therefore, it's recommended to modify the translated sentence to use the correct expressions and sentence structures in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong.

Example
Source text: Please feel free to reach out to us by email.
✘ 請隨時與我們聯繫通過電子郵件
✓ 請隨時透過電郵與我們聯繫

In addition, please pay attention if an idiom is used in the English source. In such cases, you should avoid word-for-word translation.

Example
Source text: He called me all kinds of names.
✘ 他叫我各種名字。
✘ 他叫我不同名字。
✓ 他用各種難聽的說話來罵我。

8.2. Lexical selection

An English word may have multiple translations in Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, thus, you should select the most appropriate one according to the topic and context.

Example
Source text: You can replay the levels as many times as you like to try and improve your high scores!
✘ 您可以多次重播關卡，盡量嘗試提高您的分數！
✓ 您可以多次重玩關卡，盡量嘗試提高您的分數！

8.3. Unnatural expression

Only understanding the source text is not enough to deliver a good translation. Your target text should conform to the language habits of Chinese Traditional Hong Kong.

Example
Source text: I'm sorry to hear that your system is giving you trouble.
✘ 對於得知您在系統上遇到問題我很抱歉。
✓ 得知您在系統上遇到了麻煩，我深感抱歉。

8.4. Overuse of possessives

Overuse of possessives is a common issue in translations from English to Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, as the Chinese Traditional Hong Kong language does not use possessive pronouns as frequently as English.

In Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, possessive pronouns are typically only used when it is necessary to clarify the ownership of something, and not for every instance of possession. Therefore, when translating from English to Chinese Traditional Hong Kong, it is important to avoid overusing possessive pronouns and to use other ways of expressing possession, such as using the particle ‘的’ or rephrasing the sentence.

Example
Source text: You must fill in with your detailed information such as your name, age and occupation.
✘ 您必須填寫您的詳細資料，例如您的姓名、年齡和職業。
✓ 您必須填寫您的詳細資料，例如姓名、年齡和職業。

9. Useful online resources

Dictionaries

Oxford English Dictionary

Collins English Dictionary

Cambridge English Dictionary

林語堂當代漢英詞典

Hong Kong vocabulary

共通中文界面

Articles in this section

1. Post-edition at Unbabel